"Not following" a Topic causes it to not be marked Read?

[@rjen]

Forum version: SMF2.1.1.
PHP Version 7.4.29

Trying to use the new function to "Not Follow" a topic gives some strange results..

This is what happens:
I set a topic to "Not Following".

According to the text this should result in the Topic not showing up in my Unread items when new replies are posted...
You cannot view this attachment.

But this seems not to work: when a new Reply is posted the topic is showing as unread regardless..
Funny side effect is that now it is not possible to mark it read anymore..

Reading it, and it still shows up as new in the unread topics.
In the message itself it does state that the message is read: If I thane change the topic back to "No Alerts or Emails" it disappears from the Unread items

It seems that the logic for Unread items is somehow not working correctly for topics that are marked to "Not Follow"

[@rjen]

Is this just me, or is this a bug in SMF 2.1?

[Arantor]

It's sort of the point but also a bit of a bug.

The idea is that if you are explicitly not watching, you don't want it to appear in unread etc. but I think this has moved slightly since it was originally implemented like 10 years ago.

[@rjen]

Thing is that it DOES show up in unread when I try not to follow a topic

[Arantor]

Then it's definitely not working as intended

[@rjen]

It is working here, so it must be a local issue

[@rjen]

Setup a vanilla install of SMF2.1.2 and that works fine.

My production forum is if course upgraded from 2.0.19 and it behaves differently: the topic that I set to not follow DOES show up in the recent topics, and I cannot mark it read as long as I leave it set on NOFOLLOW..

I did some digging in the code and in the tables, but I do not see any differences in the core files such as Recent.php and Recent.template.php, nor do I see differences in the database updates that explain this behaviour..

Anyony have any idea where to look further?

[Dekudibusei]

Hi everyone, I'm one of @rjen's minions (hehe). It's quite the annoying bug, and as one of the support guys I run into it as well, and more often than most users, I reckon. Has there this been verified already? Is it a borked setting? If not, it's definitely a bug, but we can't seem to find where it's coming from. Any hope of a centralized fix?

[Steve]

Is this still an issue?

[@rjen]

Yep

[Kindred]

rjen -- you confirmed that it works as expected on a clean installation ---   so, it has to be due to some configuration, mod or customization -- yes?

[@rjen]

Correct, but like I mentioned at the time: I cannot find the cause, so I am still hoping for some guidance where to look...
I personally am not suffering that much from the situation, but as it seems my 'Minions'  do...

Setup a vanilla install of SMF2.1.2 and that works fine.

My production forum is if course upgraded from 2.0.19 and it behaves differently: the topic that I set to not follow DOES show up in the recent topics, and I cannot mark it read as long as I leave it set on NOFOLLOW..

I did some digging in the code and in the tables, but I do not see any differences in the core files such as Recent.php and Recent.template.php, nor do I see differences in the database updates that explain this behaviour..

Anyony have any idea where to look further?

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[Steve]

Should I assume you've tried uninstalling the mods one at a time and see if the problem goes away?

[@rjen]

You can assume that, but that is not what I have done: since this is a productive forum I do not want to start uninstalling mods and hinder the users because I need to find a bug somewhere.

Instead I have done this:
- installed a vanilla 2.1.2 forum on Xampp locally

tested the 'Not Follow" function and it worked fine

- took a backup of the production database and imported that into the test forum

tested the 'Not Follow" function and it worked fine

- one by one installed the MODs and after each mod tested the 'Not Follow' function and it work fine everytime

So now I have a new install 2.1.2 locally with the production database and all mods that are in production, and the functionality works fine...

That is pretty well were I am... still no clue where the problem originates...

The last thing I will do later is to compare the full local codebase with that of the productive forum and see if any code difference come to light....

[TwitchisMental]

You can assume that, but that is not what I have done: since this is a productive forum I do not want to start uninstalling mods and hinder the users because I need to find a bug somewhere.

Instead I have done this:
- installed a vanilla 2.1.2 forum on Xampp locally

tested the 'Not Follow" function and it worked fine

- took a backup of the production database and imported that into the test forum

tested the 'Not Follow" function and it worked fine

- one by one installed the MODs and after each mod tested the 'Not Follow' function and it work fine everytime

So now I have a new install 2.1.2 locally with the production database and all mods that are in production, and the functionality works fine...

That is pretty well were I am... still no clue where the problem originates...

The last thing I will do later is to compare the full local codebase with that of the productive forum and see if any code difference come to light....

Just throwing this out there from left field..

During the testing on your local xampp setup, are you using the same theme as the production site?

[@rjen]

Yep, happens on both themes,

And I compared sources and both theme files and not finding any relevant differences

[TwitchisMental]

Yep, happens on both themes,

And I compared sources and both theme files and not finding any relevant differences

Another really random and crazy idea here..

Have you tried making a local SMF 2.0 install, then upgrade it to 2.1, then try to replicate the issue?

While unlikely, I am wondering if something during the upgrade process could be the cause. 

[@rjen]

Right now I can only try to debug the code to find what the ... is happening.

Can someone tell me where the "Not Following" information is stored when a user chooses not to follow a certain topic?

[Kindred]

I would assume that the "not following"" record is not an existent instant as such. Instead instead the logic probably is remove the following tracker Of course I haven't looked at the actual code myself

[shawnb61]

Did you migrate during RC, or later, directly to 2.1.0+?

This PR comes to mind, late in the RCs:
https://github.com/SimpleMachines/SMF/pull/6683